Doctor Park Trail

Finally a decent morning with proper Colorado weather; a clear morning giving way to afternoon clouds and scattered thunderstorms. It felt good to have the sun warming me up on the 6 mile climb up Spring Creek Rd. as I began the Doctor Park loop. This trail along with Trail 401 are considered must do's, and for good reason. They both provide spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and excellent descents. While 401 is more scenic along its upper 4 miles Doctor Park makes up for it with a better descent, especially the 2 mile section between the technical upper drop in, and the switchback section at the end. The ride began for me from the Spring Creek Campground along a narrow gorge cut by the creek as it descends to the Taylor River. The road climbs steadily with a moderate grade, a perfect warm up for the climb up to Doctor Park Trail proper.

Looking back down the gorge from the steepest climb on the road.

Climbing, climbing with the river and surrounding mountain sides providing ample scenery to distract you from the climb.

Topping out the the climb, the turn for Doctor's Gulch Trail is about a 3/4 mile up the road from this point. Accessing the trail requires crossing spring creek. The creek crossing is rideable, but it will submerge your hubs and get your feet wet.

The climb up Doctor's Gulch begins with a fairly steady, but manageable grade. After less than a half mile you leave the gulch, turn right, and begin to steeply ascend. The good news is the views open up, the bad news you'll be sucking too much wind to really enjoy the scenery.

Topping out on Doctor Gulch just prior to the start of Doctor Park Trail.

The initial section of Doctor Park Trail is through a dense stand of spruce, and with all the rain the area has received lately was very muddy. Luckily less than 50 yards into this part of the trail there is a turn to the left, climbing up to the ridge, to access Doctor Park Bonus Trail pictured above. The trail here drains quickly, and is open to awesome views as it wraps back around the ridge line to re-join Doctor Park Trail. Two warnings, however. First there is active cattle grazing in the area, and trails leading down off the mountain secondary to this. Just keep taking the right fork at each intersection and you'll end up where you're supposed to be. Second cows leave cow pies, don't get so absorbed in the views that you run through a nice, big, wet pile; its very difficult to clean off your water bottle from cow splatter while out on the trail...

Doctor Park Bonus Trail to the top; cow path to the bottom of the picture.

The views just don't end as you wrap around the mountain top on Doctor Park Bonus Trail.

Gentle climb up towards the intersection with Doctor Park Trail.

Looking back from whence I came at the intersection of Doctor Park Bonus and Doctor Park Trails. This is also the sight of the cow pie incident.

Doctor Park Trail: the descent begins here. The upper part is steep, and fairly technical with rocks and small ledges. Lower your seat post.

After the upper technical section of trail ends you'll enter an aspen grove and descend through about 2 miles of smooth, buff, mountain biking nirvana.

Nirvana ends with a slight climb, entering a burned section of pine forest before the final, technical descent to North Bank Campground. From there it was a short ride back to the car wrapping up a perfect ride.